I'm pretty sure they will stick to the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system.

Ive never been a fan of Morrowind-Oblivion-Skyrim way of building characters and lvling up. Too complicated and restrictive for nothing. And Skyrim was the least worse of the three ; a proof they acknowledged how weird the older system was. Fallout 3 and New Vegas' way is better ; it's simpler and yet well made and varied to the point where you can do 4-5 different walkthrough of each. Gaining some XP on successful pick locks n stuff, like it was in Fallout 3 and NV, is just fine.

I think they are referring to the fact perks have ranks, not some kind of leveling by doing, plus we already seen evidence in the different E3 footage of a generic exp bar with exp numbers, not something ya see if it was a level by doing.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/fallout-4-s-leveling-system-is-going-deep-3424235

The salient point is:

F4 wont have "skills" So you can't level them up.
They have a perk based system, which is affected by your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes.
As far as I see, the Skyrim way won't be possible as there are no points to increment.

Personally, I have no problem with this. We still get XP from generic stuff - like killing things - and that ups our levels and allows us to buy new Perks. But, then, if we want to improve the Perks (that are now, in effect, skills), we have to actually perform the actions that the Perks represent. So, while we can get the Stealth Perk from leveling up and having a high Agility, we won't actually be a "super-sneak" unless we...ya know...actually do some sneaking around. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me.

Well, if you gotta pick lock stuff to get the % of success higher, I dont mind that. But jumping around 500 times or swimming 1 hour straight just to get better at jumping and swimming, UGH! You know that system is bogus when somebody starts swimming in a wall and goes afk half an hour with a heavy rock placed on the W or space key. Or when you end up lvl 10 without completing quests nor killing monsters.

As I recall, Bethesda already confirmed that was wrong.

I don't really understand what that article is saying. You purchase a perk at level up using your general XP, then when you use that perk it's own XP level goes up and increases its power? I think I just need to see it in action for it to make complete sense. If my understanding is correct then it's similar to the "Entomologist" perk in NV, etc that gave you bonuses to killing bugs whenever you killed enough bugs. Sounds cool.

I checked into this, and I have to say that it will not affect me either way. I just don't see a big deal on whether it's true or not.

Ah. I figured it was that misconstrued quote again. It's confusing leveling a perk up by selecting it again after leveling up to leveling up perks by using them in a manner similar to how Skyrim's skills leveled up. It's just a badly written summation.

It looks like Bethesda is trying to max the replay value so I'm not worried.

I'm just hoping the bring stats back to Elder Scrolls.

From what I understand is that they changed skills so they are now perks and perks don't have a level. So I can pick up Slayer at Level 1 instead of Level 16 or whatever level requirement it had assuming I have enough strength. Some perks have multiple levels like Animal Friend has Level 1 which makes animals not fight you and Level 2 makes them fight with you. Of course, getting Animal Friend 2 requires 2 perk points that are obtained by leveling up.

If the quote has been corrected, or placed in a better context, please help me to better understand it. Personally, I'm not bothered by it either way - each approach has its merits - but I do like working on the best information available.

You only level through gaining XP is still my understanding - using a skill or perk won't increase that perk, only by gaining levels and investing that level-up in a perk will.

Remember how in Fallout 3 some perks had multiple ranks? It's the same thing.

Again, that's still my interpretation.

Its a better system with the new way.

Even Better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl9D6kCv2eY

you hit the nail on the head, have you never heard the term "practice makes perfect"? It makes complete sense. Although you shouldn't read ever article you come across and take it as fact as they could still be using the old way of leveling up your skills because I have not heard any confirmation that they are going the ES way of leveling up your skills.

But we do know how leveling works? You level up pick a perk and then you can level that perk up by using said perk? I'm pretty sure that's what the devs said?

This again. I'm 99% positive that was just a really poorly worded article. You gain XP from doing various things and that XP levels you up just as it would in any of the older Fallout games - and as you unlock more perks, those perks open up more options for gaining XP (like an XP bonus for passing a speech check, or crafting recipes unlocked by perks).

As for skill use vs general XP, I just want a system where I can play the game the way I want to play it and not get screwed for it, or have to do silly things to get the most out of the system. All of the Fallouts do that great (except for skill points being governed by IN), realism be damned. And honestly, Skyrim was the only TES game I felt did it in a way where I could just play the game; the whole attribute multiplier thing in prior games was terrible, since it made your character worse off in the end for not power-gaming. It also helped that Skyrim didn't have a skill that increased by constantly bunny hopping everywhere I went.

Yeah, I like that too and I never had a problem with Skyrim's way of level up either.

The big question in my opinion is, is there a level cap and if ther eis, what happends when you reach the cap?

Bethesda confirmed there's no level cap. Play forever!

Well, that is nice!

Thing is, I hate when my character becomes to good, I hope there is some way to prevent progress. Like you could in Skyrim for instance by not level up or using all your perk points.

Nope.. you still get xp and then when you level you get to choose a perk. Fallout's stats don't lend themselves to leveling by using. How would you level luck? By luck? "Boy it sure is lucky that I'm getting lucky critical hits based off my luck so that my luck levels up" by gambling? "Oh, no, I didn't put any points in luck so I could win at gambling so that I can raise my luck!"

That's not saying that there couldn't be some perks you get from doing things. New Vegas had challenge perks... like the more of a creature you killed you got bonuses to dealing damage against those creatures in the form of perks. There were also ones based on how many chems you took or how much water you drank. These were fine and were kind of fun to get but they weren't critical to your success within the game and weren't based on your stats or your level.